The present invention relates to a driver software installing system, and particularly to such a system that executes a setup procedure after installation of driver software in a computer.
Conventionally, an electronic device having a single or a plurality of functions such as a printer function and image data generating function has been known. Such an electronic device is typically connected directly to a terminal device (hereinafter, such a terminal device is represented by a personal computer) through, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus), and/or indirectly connected to the terminal device through a LAN (Local Area Network) using a predetermined protocol such as the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Generally, driver software for driving such an electronic device should be installed in the personal computer (i.e., the terminal device) with an installation procedure provided by an OS (Operating System) running on the personal computer, and further a setup procedure for making various settings such as a setting related to a network which connects the personal computer and the electronic device, with respect to the driver software installed in the computer should be performed. After the installation and setup procedures have been finished, the electronic device can be remotely operated by the personal computer using the driver software as installed and set up. An example of such a system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 11-110331.
When there are a plurality of electronic devices directly connected to the personal computer and/or there are a plurality of electronic devices connected through the LAN (such a system is also described in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Provisional Publication), installation of a plurality of pieces of driver software for respective electronic devices should be done for the personal computer, and further setup (e.g., setting of IP addresses of the electronic devices when the LAN employs the TCP/IP) of respective pieces of the driver software should be performed.
When the driver software is installed in the personal computer, an installer, which is known as software that semi-automates the installation procedure of driver software in the personal computer is used. It should be noted that the installer includes a first installer which is typically provided by a vender of the electronic device and is annexed to the electronic device, and a second installer which is preliminary incorporated in the OS. The former will be referred to as a vender installer and the latter will be referred to as an OS installer hereinafter. In the following description, the function of the OS installer will be referred to as installation, and the function of the vender installer will be referred to as setup. A verb “install” implies the act of installation, or occasionally includes the act of both the installation and setup of software.
In the installation operation of the driver software using the OS function, firstly the vender installer is started up by the user. Then, the vender installer requests the OS installer for an installation of the driver software. That is, installation of the driver software in the personal computer is performed by the OS installer. Next, setup of the driver software which has been installed in the personal computer is executed by the vender installer. That is, in the conventional system, driver software to be set up is identified by a name of the driver software installed in the personal computer, and the vender driver operates to set up the identified driver software. The name of the driver software was determined by the vender in advance and was set in the vender installer.
When driver software is to be newly installed, if an electronic device corresponding to the driver software to be newly installed is of the same type of an electronic device whose driver software has already been installed in the computer, the name of the driver software which has already been installed may coincide with the name of the driver software to be newly installed. In such a case, when the setup, which immediately follows the installation of the driver software, is executed, it becomes impossible to distinguish one of the driver software from the other since the two pieces of the driver software have the same name. In such a case, the setup operation of the newly installed driver software may not be finished correctly